By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

A comatose woman, whose respiratory tube was switched off Tuesday, survived a critical moment Saturday, according to Severance Hospital.

The hospital said Kim Ok-kyung's blood oxygen saturation rate had dropped to 75 percent early Friday and stayed around that level throughout the next day.

However, it returned to the normal rate of 95 percent late Saturday. An individual with a blood oxygen saturation rate of lower than 90 percent is in danger of entering hypoxemia.

The hospital is in frequent contact with Kim's family and closely monitors her in case of an emergency.

She has been in a vegetative state since February last year after excessive bleeding caused by a botched endoscopy operation.

In May, the Supreme Court handed down a historic ruling justifying the removal of a ventilator, accepting her children's claim that Kim had always opposed being kept alive by a machine when there was no chance of recovery.

pss@koreatimes.co.kr